What to Do with Old Furniture

Yesterday I wrote a post about all the new furniture that we purchased last weekend. Our furniture will be delivered in about two weeks, and to make room for it, we need to clear away our old stuff. There are five options that come to mind:

Selling - financially this is the most attractive option. It is conceivable that we could sell the furniture for a few hundred dollars. Even though our sofa has a big hole clawed by our cat, the sofa is structurally sound and is very comfortable. My wife thinks that someone could buy it, cover it with a low cost slip-cover and give it a whole new lease on life. I am not a believer. On the other hand, our armchair and dining room table and chairs are in good condition and are of decent quality. It is conceivable that these can be sold. To be honest, I don't have the patience to try to sell used stuff. I guess I am too lazy to go through the hassle.

Donating - we could donate most of the furniture, but I am not sure whether charities would consider the sofa good enough to take. Then there is the question of transportation. Some charities, including Goodwill are typically willing to pick-up donations, but if they don't accept the sofa we need to come up with another solution. Donating would give us a tax credit worth a few hundred dollars, so there is that upside to consider.

Giving - with Craig's List giving stuff away has never been easier. Typically if you advertise free furniture, someone will e-mail you within minutes and agree to pick up the thing. The advantage here is that we don't need to worry about transportation and clearing out the stuff.

Curb-Siding - similar to giving, we could turn our furniture into curb-side freebies, by putting it out on the street with a big sign saying "FREE". Of course, it would be pretty embarrassing if no one bothered to collect them, in which case we would also have to figure out a different way to accomplish the goal.

Dumping - that's not a very green approach to take, but we could always call the local waste management company and ask them to pick up the items. This may require us to pay for the benefit of having the furniture removed, which seems like a waste given that selling or donating the items can actually make us some money and giving the items away is cost free.

Anyway, I asked my wife to lead the charge and figure out the strategy. I'll keep you posted. Regardless, I will be very happy to see this old furniture go and the brand new, shiny furniture being delivered. We kept this old furniture well past its time to go. Frankly, it was embarrassing to me to have people come over and see the sorry state of our living room. This will be a big improvement.

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